Facebook's Fight Against "The Worm"
A tool used by cyber criminals in order to steal login details for items such as online banking as well as other services has been adapted slightly and is now being used to target Facebook user details. The Ramnit worm as it is known has actually been spreading since April 2010 but it has only just started to target Facebook details.
Although it is a form of virus it is a distinct type of virus and extremely clever in that it can easily reproduce without the need to attach itself to any existing programmes. Online the Ramnit worm can spread extremely rapidly taking victims along the way.
Currently around 45000 Facebook login credentials have been stolen and they have identified these people as being their British and French users although some worldwide credentials have been stolen.
The person behind the Ramnit worm, whoever that may be is using the credentials to first login to their Facebook account and then uses their account to send malicious links to their friend lists and thus magnifying the malware’s spread even further.
It is such high valuable information that in some cases it is even traded on online black markets as it is extremely valuable when placed into the hands of a cyber criminal. Already though Facebook has taken action and is defending their users.
They have checked through the affected users and said that for the most part they have only claimed old data and thus it isn’t valuable information. Just to be on the safe side though Facebook has requested for all those affected to change their passwords.
As this came as quite a shock it has now started the ball rolling and Facebook are working with a number of security experts to ensure that events like this do not happen again. As a warning from Brick technology web design we advise you to not click on any links which appear strange no matter whether this is on your Facebook, Twitter or elsewhere on the web.